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Burgatory Bar – April 28, 2011

This past Thursday some friends and I went to Burgatory, I haven’t ventured out onto the new Pittsburgh burger scene lately and was really excited to do so. Especially because I have heard some great things about Burgatory. How did Burgatory hold up? Let’s dig in…

I started the night out with one of their “Hard Shakes” and the one that caught my eye was the “Apple Pancakes & Bacon” – Gala Apple & Caramel Vodka with Caramelized Apple Pancakes & Bacon. As the menu says “If you’re scratching your head right now, you’re not ready for this one but trust us – it’s oh so good!”. No, no it is not! They had my interest because of the flavors in there and I thought maybe they would work well together because of the salty and sweet combo. I can say that outside of the bacon in the shake I thought it was good, because I would take a sip and the sweetness was really good, but then I would get hit with the bacon and it would just ruin everything for me, and then I would have to chew the bacon and other bits in the shake. I know I usually say bacon makes everything better, today we are going to add an asterisk to that line *NOT IN MILKSHAKES!

We then moved to the appetizer of “Six Napkin Nachos”! Menu reads “Tony’s Chicken Chili, Fire Roasted Poblano Peppers, Jack & Cheddar, Smoked Jalapeno Sour Cream and fresh Guacamole.” Another disappointment at Burgatory, I felt that everything that was on the nachos just didn’t give anything a great flavor experience. I think there was too much working against each other as I didn’t get any real taste from the nachos, and it tasted mushier than anything. 0 for 2.

Since this is a burger joint and not a nacho bar, hopefully the burger will save the day! A really nice feature is that you can build your own burger at Burgatory but they also have a selection of burgers that they recommend. I tried the Morty’s Steakhouse – “Peppercorn Crusted Beef Burger with Horseradish Cheddar, Haystack Onions and Cabernet Sauce.” Their tagline for the burger is “Like the greatest steak dinner you’ve ever had reincarnated as a burger”. Let me tell you, I had the greatest steak dinner of my life last summer at Chef Robert Irvine’s restaurant in Hilton Head, and this burger doesn’t even come close to that! I ordered the burger medium well and the burger was cooked perfectly and juicy, I especially love when there are little juice pockets in a burger for a flavor experience unlike any other. That is about all I can say great about the burger. The peppercorn crust was WAY too over powerful on this burger because that was all I could really taste as I ate the burger. Bite after bite, peppercorn seasoning upon more peppercorn seasoning. The thing that sold me on this burger even more was when reading the menu it has Horseradish Cheddar cheese, where? While it was on the burger, it was scarce and the flavor was minimal as the peppercorn was still battling my taste buds in each bite. I was also interested in the cabernet sauce, but that was just there version of A1. If you have ever had an A1 steakhouse burger from Burger King that is pretty much what I had here except the burger patty was better quality. If you are in the mood for a steakhouse burger, save some money and just go to Burger King. Along with the burger you have a choice of fries or chips, the waitress was selling us on ordering the fries which are homemade and are $1 more. Don’t waste the extra dollar and stick with the chips because they are far better tasting and already come with the meal.

The rest of the table created their own burgers and seemed pleased, on my next trip I will make sure to avoid the hard shakes and recommended burgers (along with the seasoning) and create a flavorful burger which is what I should’ve done in the first place. Overall table rating for the trip was a 7, so the overall Burgatory food experience was just average. Who else has been to Burgatory? Have you had the same experience or has it been for the better?